


Oh, by the way

by aces_low



Series: drabbles and ish [25]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Kissing, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-10 05:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13496104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: “Maybe I was thinking just the chance to spend time with me was a good enough sell.”“So, hubris.”“It’ll be my downfall,” Nate admits.------Nate asks Ray to be his date for yet another party.





	Oh, by the way

**Author's Note:**

> Was prompted with: Last time I ask you for a favor!

“‘ello,” Ray answers his phone, though his words are garbled through the toothbrush he still has in his mouth.

“Are you busy Sunday, from about 3 to 7?” Nate’s voice comes from the other end of the line, clearly unfazed by Ray talking with his mouth full, as well as the convention of actually greeting people properly on the phone.

“Ya know, this is the problem with youth today,” Ray starts, finally taking the toothbrush out of his mouth and spitting the remaining toothpaste into the sink so he can really make his point. “Don’t know how to have a proper conversation. It’s these newfangled cellular phones and that damn internet rotting their brains. Soon we’ll all just be talking to each other in grunts and noises. We’re reverting back to Neanderthals.”

“Actually, we weren’t ever Neandertals,” Nate shoots back and Ray rolls his eyes, he should have known that Nate would try to out-lecture him. “They’re more of a relative to us, we didn’t evolve from them, so we wouldn’t be going back to them at all.”

“You don’t know what I evolved from.”

“Fair enough,” Nate concedes, which must mean he really did have a reason to call. He doesn’t spar like Brad, but Ray and he have had their share of pointless arguments that go on much longer than they have any reason to. The biggest difference is they never get mean the way Brad and Ray always have.

Ray had been apprehensive when he first realized that he was going to be living in the same town, and going to the same school, as his former lieutenant. Mostly, because he hadn’t known how much time he was expected to spend with the guy and if he was going to want to talk about Iraq with him all the time, or the Marines in general. It turns out, it hasn’t really been a problem. Ray does hang out with Nate more than he’d originally thought he would, but Nate is not nearly the drag Ray had been expecting him to be. In fact, out of all of Ray’s friends here, he probably prefers to spend his time with Nate over anyone else. He’s easier to talk to, and study with, and there is an understanding between them about what they went through that Ray would never be able to talk about with his other friends.

They tell people - people mostly meaning Brad and Mike and Walt and Garza - that they don’t know how they got so close, it just happened naturally. Really though, the thing that took them from a friendly, familiar face around town to actual friends came when they’d run into each other at the club in town that is pretty widely understood to be the gay club. They both had just stared at each other, wide-eyed and speechless, for a few minutes before Nate had dragged him off to the side and decided that they needed to have a talk. Ray would have been perfectly fine if they’d pretended it had never happened instead of talking about their feelings and their sexualities. But, Nate is persuasive, and before Ray knew what he was doing he was opening up to his former Marine lieutenant about his past and his struggles with being gay in Nevada, Missouri, and being gay in the Marines, and now being gay in college. That had been the last time Ray struggled not to call Nate sir or LT, from that point on, he’s just been Nate.

Now, the only problem is that, while Ray has always thought Nate was good-looking and a good leader, now he knows he’s also funny, and smart and…still just really good-looking. But it’s weird enough considering his old lieutenant to be one of his best friends, he really hates having to add current #1 infatuation to it as well. So, he’s been trying to live in a constant state of denial about that fact, of which he’s had mixed results.

“ _Hello Ray_ ,” Nate tries again, and Ray hums in approval as he goes back to brushing his teeth. “So, Sunday?”

“Uh,” Ray stops to spit again. “I don’t think I have anything going on.”

“Great, cause I need you to come with me to something as my plus one.”

This is why Ray has been seeing mixed results.

He groans audibly, making sure Nate can really hear the agony this is causing him.

“This is the last time I ask you for a favor, I swear,” Nate says, or, lies.

“That’s exactly what you said last time and the time before that. That’s what you said the first time you made me come to one of these fucking parties. You said, and I quote, ‘it’s just this one time, Ray, I’ll never ask you to do something like this again’, and here we are, five events later, and you’re still feeding me the same line of bullshit.”

Ray never thought that a significant amount of his time while in college was going to involve him spending his weekends at rich people parties, in nice clothes, as Nate Fick’s date. But for Nate, going to charity events, and award ceremonies and various school organization functions are all important weekend plans for him. And more often than not, he wants to have a date with him at these functions, because he doesn’t actually always enjoy all the people there, he just goes because of his family, or for appearances, or for networking purposes, and for some reason, Ray is who he has decided is the best candidate for that.

Nate is surprisingly out in most areas of his life. All his friends and family know, and apparently, he’s been openly gay, until his stretch in the Marines, since high school. So, while Nate often takes his friend Lauren - a former lieutenant commander in the Navy - as his date to any event involving the military, because she can’t take her own girlfriend to events like those, for the rest of his social functions, he prefers having a male date. And, despite have plenty of guy friends, all with better manners and better clothes and a better appreciation for whatever the fuck it is people are doing at these parties, Ray is the only friend Nate ever asks to accompany him.

Ray likes to complain, but he actually doesn’t mind these parties all that much. He’d been self-conscious the first time he’d gone, thinking everyone would be able to see through whatever rouse he thought he was conducting, but these events are much less Cruel Intentions and more like the annual trivia night his grandma’s church puts on, only with better food, clothes, venues, and prizes to bid on in silent auctions.

Still, if he doesn’t give Nate shit about it every time he asks, then Ray will just be giving in and accepting this weird thing between them where they just go on, what most people would argue are, dates, about once a month and never discuss it or why it’s kind of weird. Or never discuss how it’s driving Ray insane because it’s making his deep denial about his infatuation become something he really cannot ignore.

“And you always come anyway, and it’s never the torturous experience you always make it out to be,” Nate points out, and he would be on the other end of a real nasty glare if he were in front of Ray.

“What is it even for? Am I gonna have to shake a bunch of people’s hands and act like I give a shit about whatever it is they do?”

“Nope, it’s just a function my dad’s firm is putting on. I’ll have to talk to a few people, but you don’t have to do anything, just tune everyone out. They’re all lawyers, that’s all you have to know.”

Ray makes another noise in the back of his throat, signifying his distaste for this whole thing. He’s already decided he’ll go, if for no other reason than to get to hang out with Nate. They always tend to have a nice time together at these things.

“The food and booze are all free,” Nate finally says.

Ray perks up at that. It’s one thing to pretend to not want to go because he doesn’t want to spend his Sunday afternoon with a room of people he doesn’t know or care about, it’s an entirely different thing to turn down free food and alcohol.

“There we go, why didn’t you start with that?”

“Maybe I was thinking just the chance to spend time with me was a good enough sell.”

“So, hubris.”

“It’ll be my downfall,” Nate admits.

 

 

“Oh, Ray, good, we were hoping you’d be here.”

Ray has parked himself at one of the tables that had various types of finger foods and appetizers, after spending about twenty minutes making rounds with Nate, who has to meet every partner and donor and whoeverthefuck else, Ray was given permission to go off on his own. So, naturally, he’s on his second glass of champagne and he’s commandeered the cheese plate as his own.

He turns to see Samantha, one of the regular people he always sees at these events and who Nate and he tend to spend most of their time with. She and her boyfriend, Anthony, go to these things almost once a week. Despite being those kinds of people, Ray really doesn’t mind them, in fact, it’s nice to know a couple other people in the room whenever Nate has to leave him for a while. Though he doesn’t think he’d ever hang out with them outside of these functions. He’s caught himself thinking of Samantha and Anthony as Nate and his ‘fancy party friends’, but then he realized that having designated friends for certain situations with another person usually is only meant for couples. Something he has to remind himself that they are not often right before, after, and during one of these non-dates.

“C’mon, we’re over here,” Samantha waves him over and he throws a few more things onto his tiny cocktail napkin and follows her across the room.

“Ah, Ray, glad you could make it,” Anthony says as they approach, standing up to shake Ray’s hand. Anthony has a tendency to act like he’s the one hosting every single event he goes to, and he insists on shaking hands every time they see each other. Ray can only assume that he’s practicing for when he’s CEO of some corporation, with a non-profit charity run by Samantha and they really do start putting these on themselves. Ray feels exhausted for them.

“Sam was afraid you weren’t gonna make it tonight,” Anthony tells him as they sit down.

A waiter comes around with new glasses of champagne and they all thank him.

“How come?” Ray asks, looking between the couple. “I always come to these things.”

Samantha waves her hand in a shooing motion as a vague substitute for an answer as she takes a drink.

“Ya know, the meeting the parent’s thing,” she finally says.

Ray raises his eyebrows in question.

“We weren’t sure if you’d met Nate’s parents yet,” Anthony explains.

“Oh, yeah, Neil and Jane? They’re great,” Ray tells them honestly.

He’d met Nate’s parents at the very first event he’d gone to with him. They’d hit it off well, even though Ray had been much more nervous than meeting a friend’s parents should garner. Both of them have invited Ray to tag along to dinner sometime when Nate visits, but so far, he hasn’t taken them up on the offer.

“See,” Anthony says, stretching his arm across the back of Samantha’s chair. “Point, me.”

Ray quirks an eyebrow at the couple.

Samantha rolls her eyes at her boyfriend before leaning in toward Ray.

“Anthony and I have this running argument about when you and Nate got together,” she explains.

“Oh,” is all Ray can think to say.

“Yeah, it’s dumb, but one day we were talking about something and we both realized we had completely different ideas of when we thought you two finally started dating. Anthony thinks you two have been together for over a year, but I said I don’t think it’s been more than a few months.”

Ray is a little bit dumbstruck. He supposes this was inevitable, he does act as Nate’s date in every capacity that they see him in, but Ray and Nate have never actually told anyone that they’re together. When Nate introduces Ray to people he just tells them his name, he doesn’t call him his friend or his boyfriend or even his date, he just says ‘this is Ray’, and people can assume from there.

He figured plenty of people that he’s been introduced to these past few months have assumed they were a couple, but not Samantha and Anthony, they spend enough time with the two that they should realize that Ray and Nate aren’t anything but friends.

“Well, since it’s out there now, I guess we can finally settle this,” Anthony says with a grin.

They both look at Ray expectantly.

He’s only able to get out an, “uh,” before they’re joined by Nate.

“What are we settling?” he asks as he sets his own drink down before sitting next to Ray.

“They were just telling me that they’ve been debating when we first got together,” Ray tells him, raising his eyebrows, which Nate mirrors. “Samantha thinks it’s only been a few months, but Anthony thinks we got together over a year ago.”

Nate narrows his eyes at Ray for just a moment before a small grin stretches over his lips and he turns to their tablemates.

“Tony, you really think I’d start dating someone while they were still technically under my command?”

Anthony shrugs and grins. “Yeah, I thought it was one of those…ya know, uh, kinda like one of those student-teacher situations.”

Ray nearly chokes on his drink.

Nate turns back to looks at him, just to make sure he’s ok, before looking back at Anthony and shaking his head.

“No, I’m really not into hooking up with people when I can’t tell for sure if they’re doing it because they want to or because they feel obligated.”

“See,” Samantha says, smacking Anthony’s chest with the back of her hand. “I told you that wasn’t Nate’s style.”

Nate chuckles, to show there are no hard feelings, before asking Samantha about her dissertation. He segues the conversation away from the topic of them dating without giving any real answer to the question with such ease Ray feels like his head is spinning. It’s a real shame that Nate has decided that he has no interest in getting into politics, Ray has a feeling he’d do well with it.

 

 

“You had a good time,” Nate insists as he unlocks his door.

Ray waits for Nate to turn and grin at him so that he can see just how big his eye roll is, but when Nate does turn around their eyes meet for a moment and he forgets what he was doing. Nate looks good like this, dressed up, but with the top few buttons of his shirt undone and his jacket hanging over his arm, his keys in one hand and the takeout bag of tacos they’d picked up on the way back in the other, his eyes just a little glassy and his cheeks and ears slightly rosy from the glasses of champagne he’d had. This is definitely Ray’s favorite look on him.

When Nate quirks an eyebrow up at him, probably wondering why Ray isn’t making a move to step into the now open door, and instead just leering at him, Ray quickly clears his throat and following Nate into his apartment as he says, “it was fine.”

They settle in on the couch, with their bag of tacos and Ray finds himself incapable of holding in his smile.

Yes, Ray does have a good time with Nate at these events, mostly because not much is expected of him personally and he sort of gets to pretend he and Nate are more than just friends for a few hours. But more than anything, this is his favorite part of these nights, it’s becoming a tradition. They leave the event early, pick up tacos, whether they had been served food or not, and go to Nate’s place to eat and talk and maybe drink some more. Ray would go to a thousand boring events if it meant every one of them would end like this.

It’s with that thought that Ray realizes how ridiculous he’s been these last few months. Trying to ignore the very real infatuation that he has for Nate, and letting himself be dragged along for quasi-dates without any indication of Nate feeling anything close to how he does. This really isn’t how he does things, he’s more interested in knowing where he stands with everyone and everything in his life than playing it safe like he has been.

So, he shoves the tacos out of the way and moves closer to the center of the couch, before cutting Nate off in the middle of his story about some of his father’s weird colleagues he’d met tonight.

“If I tried to kiss you right now, how would you react?” Ray asks.

Nate stops talking, his eyes widen just a fraction and he says, “seriously?”

Ray shrugs. “Yeah, I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons here, and-”

“Oh, thank god,” Nate says, cutting him off and pulling him in for a kiss, cradling Ray’s face with his hands and bumping his knee against Ray’s thigh as he shifts closer.

It takes Ray about half a second to realize that this is actually happening, another half a second to silently celebrate whatever it is that made this happen, and then he’s gripping the collar of Nate’s shirt in one hand and the back of his head with the other. He tilts his head slightly, letting their lips slot together in a way that prompts a small noise from the back of Nate’s throat, and Ray knows he’s going to need to hear that noise again, as soon as possible.

The kiss is hard and fast and feels like pent-up energy and frustration is being poured into it, and not just Ray’s.

When they finally pull away, both of them breathing heavier and Nate’s lips are red and swollen in a way that steals all of Ray’s focus.

“So,” Ray starts, through steadying breaths. “Huh. What the fuck was that?”

Nate licks his lips and Ray feels himself move closer without even deciding to.

“Sorry,” Nate says, starting to lean back, but Ray still has his fist clenched in Nate’s shirt and he keeps him right where he is.

“It’s not a problem, homes. I’m just wondering what the fuck that was and why that’s the first time we’ve done that.”

Nate bites his lip but the grin he’s trying to suppress comes through anyway. He lets his hands come up to rest against Ray’s sides and squeezes lightly.

“I dunno, I’ve been waiting for you to make a move and you just kept not doing it,” Nate tells him.

“Me? Why were you waiting for me?” Ray gapes.

“Well, I couldn’t do it.”

“Why the fuck not?”

Nate quirks an eyebrow up. “Because I used to be your lieutenant. If I made the first move and you said yes I’d be worried all the time that you did so because of some kind of residual feeling of duty or something.”

Ray thinks that’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard, but he knows Nate and knows that that is something that would genuinely plague him. He probably had a pros and cons list before he even decided if he was going to be friends with Ray, something like this would require spreadsheets and graphs.

“So…these dates?” Ray asks because now he’s starting to think Nate hasn’t just been inviting him to fancy parties as personal entertainment.

Nate ducks his head. “I, maybe, bent my own rules a little by asking you out on dates that weren’t technically dates,” he admits.

“Nate Fick, you sneaky bastard.”

Before Nate can say anything to defend himself, Ray surges forward, capturing his lips again in an attempt to end this particular line of discussion. He doesn’t need any more explanation or excuses, he’s just glad that he eventually got over himself and asked. Nate doesn’t seem eager to go back to talking though and that’s good enough for Ray.

In fact, he forgets what they’d even been talking about as soon as he feels his back hit the couch.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I'm probably gonna write a follow up for this, cause I enjoyed writing this universe a lot.


End file.
